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GSU notebook: McKinnon earns SoCon offensive player of week

STATESBORO — Georgia Southern quarterback Jerick McKinnon missed a few assignments last Saturday, and that meant he had to run extra sprints after practice Monday afternoon.

He wasn’t running very long.

It was hard to find fault with McKinnon’s performance during the 69-26 victory over Howard University. He ran for a career-high 198 yards — tying for 30th with Adrian Peterson on the Eagles’ all-time, single-game performance records.

He ran for three touchdowns and threw for two more.

Monday, McKinnon earned his first Southern Conference offensive player of the week honor.

“Outside recognition, it’s great to be noticed by other people, but we’re trying to be team oriented and play for one another,” McKinnon said.

But recognition is building for the junior from Marietta, who has started the last seven games at quarterback and led the Eagles to a 6-1 record.

McKinnon has been an unselfish soldier, playing quarterback, slotback, returning kicks — even playing defensive back last season in the FCS playoffs.

But McKinnon’s true value is under center. The triple-option offense is averaging nearly 39 points a game under his direction. He had 141 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner in triple overtime, in the Eagles’ 39-31 win over Chattanooga three weeks ago.

McKinnon topped the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season Saturday (1,053 yards), becoming the first GSU quarterback since Jayson Foster in 2007 to go over 1,000 yards.

“I just think the sense of urgency is there,” Eagles coach Jeff Monken said. “In his position, he has to lead and he has to lead by example. ... He’s steadily improved as the season has gone along, and hopefully there’s room for more improvement.”

Moving up to 6th

Georgia Southern gained a spot to No. 6 in both The Sports Network and the FCS Coaches top 25 rankings that were released Monday.

The Eagles (8-2) have been ranked in the top 10 all year.

Although, GSU has finished its Southern Conference slate, it has a chance to earn the league’s automatic spot in the 20-team FCS playoffs if The Citadel defeats Furman on Saturday.

The Eagles finished in a three-way tie for the conference top spot with Appalachian State and Furman.

Southern will no doubt earn an at-large bid to the FCS playoffs regardless of what the Eagles do in their regular-season finale with Georgia on Saturday.

Statistically speaking

GSU leads the FCS in rushing offense, averaging 401.2 yards a game.

The Eagles are third in kickoff returns (26.2 yards per return), seventh in passing efficiency (154.85 rating), ninth in total offense (467.3 per game) and 10th in scoring (37.6 points per game).

This and that

Defensive tackle Brent Russell (suspension), safety Darius Eubanks (bruised shoulder) and quarterback Ezayi Youyoute (ankle sprain) returned to practice after missing the Howard game. ... Fullback Dominique Swope is fourth in the nation in scoring, averaging 10.75 points a game. ... The 69 points scored against Howard were the most by Georgia Southern since scoring 70 against Chattanooga on Sept. 22, 2001.